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U.S. DELEGATION TO VISIT TAIWAN IN JULY TO DISCUSS SUBMARINE DEAL

Jun 27, 2002 11:52 UTC+0800

Washington, June 26 (CNA) A U.S. delegation is scheduled to visit Taiwan in July to discuss a planned submarine deal between the two countries, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the delegation was originally scheduled to visit Taiwan in spring.

The travel plan was postponed to July partly because Taiwan had some different opinions about the requirement that it has to pay for an evaluation of the U.S. plan to provide it with eight conventional submarines, the official said.

When the U.S. delegation visits Taiwan next month, he said, the issue regarding the Taiwan's payment for the evaluation will be discussed.

The U.S. Navy has invited experts to review a number of detailed diesel-powered submarine construction plans presented by prospective defense contractors last November.

As the U.S. law bans its government from using any of its budget in selling weapons to foreign countries, the official said, the bills for inviting experts to evaluate the Taiwan-related submarine deal couldn't be footed by the U.S. government.

The official would not divulge the exact amount of the evaluation fees. It was learned that the amount was about US$100,000. He said Taiwan has paid for part of the expenses and that the remaining payment would be discussed later.

According to the official, as the United States has not built any diesel-powered submarines for many years, evaluating the feasibility of each construction plan presented by prospective bidders is necessary because the deal will start from design of the submarines. In missile and F-16 jet fighter deals, such feasibility studies are not needed since those items are still available in spot market.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesman said that the newly announced Beijing plan to purchase additional submarines from Russia is part of mainland China's military modernization project. Nevertheless, he said, the Pentagon will closely watch developments in the deal in order to assess its possible impact on Taiwan's maritime transportation.

(By Jay Chen and Sofia Wu)